I used to exclusively watch anime on Toonami, since that was before I discovered the wonders of the Internet. Fast forward past my 8 year hiatus from anime, and now I watch the majority of my shows on Crunchyroll. Though I REALLY wish that Hulu Plus would have removed ALL ads from their anime if you are a Plus member, as watching 3 ads per episode really kills the pacing for me. I might renew my Netflix account now that I know that they have anime, however.

I watch all my Anime now on Crunchy Roll using my IPhone,
That's right I have all of those shows' in my pocket!, a golden age indeed,
However there are some exceptions, such as big anime movies like
Metropolis, Akira, or any of the Miyazaki films, I enjoy having those on DVD,
Speaking of Miyazaki, have you guys heard about "The Wind Rises"?, I know Miramax
Is releasing a dubed version state side this month, what are your thoughts on Miyazaki's retirement?, can any one replace him?, and if so then who?, certainly not Goro.....

I'm a heavy Crunchyroll and HULU Plus user since I moved out. Can't afford cable. Went with the internet. When anime used to be Toonami and Tech TV, TV was a big thing. Even with Toonami's revival as of today, the internet became better. There is more access to anime legally and illegally.

For Neon Alley, it was all dub. I tried the first free week trial. It was a good experience. Though, it had a small but growing anime library. Smaller than Netflix. HULU and Crunchyroll has the largest anime library and it's expanding. I definitely recommend trying Neon Alley if you want to experience dubbed shows before the Blu Ray and DVD releases.

For HULU Plus, the ads do kill while you're a subscription user. Sometimes, the ads will restart. At least, the PS3 app for HULU is better than Crunchyroll because it's less likely to crash. Crunchyroll's PS3 app crashes often when you have to scroll thru so many episodes like Naruto Shippuden. For Crunchyroll users, subscription is probably the best. Watching it free will have ads, and ads mess up the video. With a Crunchyroll subscription, you can watch 720P to 1080P for newer anime series. It's better quality than HULU's videos (subscription only). On the other hand, non subscription videos for Crunchyroll are poorer quality than HULU's.

Edit:

For HULU and Crunchyroll, I definitely recommend both. If you're like old shows and don't watch a lot of new shows, stick with HULU. If you're up for new shows, stick with Crunchyroll. With HULU, I said this twice sorry. HULU eventually gets the new shows from Crunchyroll after a season or 2. If you're a patient person who wants to save money, stick with HULU.

Edit:

I can't watch the video in the library. I'll comment later.

@Vapovile:

I tried Netflix's one month trial back in Winter 2012-2013. It had a small anime library, all of them are in dub as I recalled. The service might have been expanded as of today, but I haven't look back. That reminds me to look up Netflix. I have been promoting Crunchyroll and HULU/FUNimation (most FUNimation simulcasts fall on HULU while CR simulcasts go on HULU after a season) heavily in this site.

@takashichea: Coming from personal experience, Netflix's streaming library for anime titles is rather small. I was only on their streaming plan for three months before I ran out of titles worth my interest and switched back over to a disc-only rental plan. Otherwise, their DVD offerings for anime were plentiful when I was still subscribed to them and they occasionally had older, out of print titles among available titles to rent.

I had quit Netflix after one month trial because it didn't have enough anime for me. Like you said, most were older titles. Neon Alley is like Netflix, but Neon Alley features new anime shows in dub before the companies (mostly Viz) release the actual Blu Ray and DVDs.

Netflix isn't that much of competitor in the anime industry compared to the others:

HULU and Crunchyroll are the big ones for me.

Neon Alley (tried the 1st week trial) - only fulfills a small niche that a few fans would enjoy since it never features subbed anime shows.

HULU does some dub, but not much. Sometimes, HULU doesn't have a complete show like One Piece and Case Closed

Crunchyroll's simulcast titles don't stay for more than 3 years. Fairy Tail and some other titles had expired.

FUNimation's simulcasts last for a long time, but their video quality is not that great compared to HULU and Crunchyroll. It's less user friendly to those who have ad blocks and such.

The only simulcast sites I haven't tried are The Anime Network, Daisuki, and Niconico. I heard about Wakanime.UK. It's in French and probably restricted to Europe.

Edit:

Neon Alley's free week trial only requires an e-mail address back when I subscribed in Fall 2013. For HULU, to try its subscription's free week trial, you need a credit card and e-mail address.

1) I don't buy anything that I haven't seen (out of my collection I've only blind bought Galaxy Railways, Moribito, Hayate no Gotoku Movie, Galaxy Express movies... and I've never watched them and probably never will unless they end up on Cunchyroll)

2) I only watch anime for two reasons: cool looking fights and things related to discovering the story. Because of the second one, I never have any interest in rewatching the overwhelming majority of stuff I buy. This applies outside of anime and goes to basically anything that takes longer than 2 hours to consume with the exception of Gangster movies.

3) I'm lazy and prefer to load CR on my PS3 than go through and find a disc. It's actually faster.

The 1st thing combined with the second are major reasons why I prefer streaming. They work hand in hand. I don't rewatch anime so my collection gathers dust (a ton of what I buy is still in shrink wrap because I purchased solely because I enjoyed the first viewing and wanted to support the makers/licensors). I don't buy what I haven't seen so the only way to do that is either fansubs (which I do once in a blue moon, usually just for Eva movies because I can't wait years for them to come over here and they don't put English subs on the JP release so I can't even import them and watch it) or streaming.

When I first got into anime, I watched a lot of DVDs because I just got Netflix and there was no streaming option (YouTube and Hulu didn't even exist) so discs were the only way for me. Once streaming became a reality, discs became baseball cards. I purchased them solely to collect but they didn't serve any actual functional purpose in my life.

@takashichea said:

Crunchyroll's simulcast titles don't stay for more than 3 years. Fairy Tail and some other titles had expired..

Hulu- Offer solid streaming quality and a large number of anime titles, but stuff streamed is peppered with ads and I've heard even getting a subscription still leaves you stuck with them.

Funimation- Offer most of their anime licensing library from their site if you have an Elite subscription. However, their options for adjusting video quality settings are quite limited (which is troublesome if you have an ISP with data caps).

Crunchyroll- No ads and a decent number of video quality options if you're a subscriber. However, their offerings of licensed titles are limited and simulcast offerings are of the televised versions, which are usually edited for titles with more graphic content.

What do you mean by reality based statements? I remember reading a few Crunchyroll articles on some titles that their license will expire. They won't simulcast it. When you go on FUNimation's website, they tell you the date that this video will stay online. HULU doesn't do a lot of news coverage which makes it hard for me to gather simulcast data on them or find out what new shows they added.

@Dream:

Thanks for sharing your experiences. I haven't use FUNimation a lot. For guys who love to marathon, Crunchyroll (w/ subscription) would be the best. I tried marathoning HULU on TV, and the ads do stop. I did run into glitches when you marathon too long. The video starts loading slowly, and I"m not sure if it's my internet or PS3's fault. I'm pretty sure HULU's app had issues when I test out the internet on the computer.

To Matt Murphy:

I finally had a chance to watch the vid. Your experiences with Crunchyrolll remind me of Neon Alley. Both channels started new, and folks were cautiously optimistic. Crunchyroll did pretty well up to this day. Neon Alley is growing. I tried Neon Alley after meeting Tom Pinchuk at the Neon Alley Booth during Anime Expo 2013. Tried the free week trial. It has a small library of just dubbed shows before BD and DVD releases in the states. It's good for folks who want to try dub, but it needs to expand its library.

I mean it's a statement not based off of reality. You can sort the available anime on CR by the date it was simulcast. They've got stuff dating back to 2009. You said they don't carry anything for more than 3 years. That is not a reality based statement.

I watch anime on Neon alley, Crunchyroll, Funimation, DvD/blueray, toonami and the animenetwork.

Awesome! Legal sites to watch anime are more available than legal manga simulpub sites. I'll make a list of manga legal sites since I remember folks in the battle threads thought their links to those manga pirated websites were legal. This will help them clear the confusion.

Yes they are now. But Crunchyroll used to be a streaming site for uploading fansubbed releases. Crunchyroll had a premium membership and ads, they were making money from not only the anime but also the fan translation. They eventually went legit, but they used the money and community from before to do this.